There is an effort under way in the industry to provide connectors for wiring that are approved by the Underwriters Laboratory. The connectors which are presently approved have strain relief boots which are attached to the connectors by an epoxy adhesive. Unfortunately, in the event of a fire, the epoxy adhesive burns with the production of noxious fumes. Furthermore, the use of an adhesive requires man hours to apply the adhesive and to assemble the system in addition to requiring curing time for the adhesive to harden. The cost of the adhesive is added to the labor costs. A further problem is that the epoxy adhesive produces an attachment which cannot be removed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,856 issued Jun. 5, 1990 to Pelta discloses a strain relief boot adhered to a connector with epoxy.
The applicants are also aware of snap fits and threaded means for attaching strain relief boots to connectors as in the following:
______________________________________ Inventor(s) U.S. Pat. No. Date of Issue ______________________________________ Tanaka et al 4,813,760 03/01/1989 Grois et al 5,062,683 11/05/1991 Collins et al 5,202,942 04/13/1993 ______________________________________
The strain relief boots disclosed in these references are complex, difficult to manufacture and require excessive time to assemble.
A need exists for a simple, easily manufactured strain relief boot which can be assembled rapidly, is cost effective, is removable and does not produce noxious fumes in the event of a fire.